Author and historian Michael C. Hardy muses about the War for Southern Independence in North Carolina.

Saturday, January 07, 2017

Charlotte and Stonewall Jackson's LeMat

In the January
issue of America's Civil War, there
is an interesting piece on the LeMat revolvers, written by Michael G. Williams.
The LeMats are fairly rare nine-shot .42 caliber revolvers that also had a
small 20-guage shotgun barrel underneath. Imported during the war, they were
owned by the likes of J.E.B. Stuart, Braxton Bragg, Richard H. Anderson, and P.
G. T. Beauguard (Serial #8). The article has a sidebar about Stonewall
Jackson's LeMat. But as the sidebar states, we don't actually have any proof
that Jackson owned a LeMat. Maybe J.E.B. Stuart gave him one, about the same
time that he presented him with a new coat, right before Chancellorsville.

The article includes a picture from the collection of the Virginia
Military Institute. The photo is of a sitting room or parlor at the home of
Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, taken in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mary Anna was
from the area and lived in Charlotte twice after the war (she died there on
March 24, 1915). In post-war newspaper accounts, she is frequently mentioned exhibiting
some of Stonewall's personal effects. A visitor coming to the annual bazaar held
each January to raise money for indigent Confederate soldiers could see Jackson's
sword and other mementos. When the
national reunion of the United Confederate Veterans was held in Charlotte in
1929, visitors could stop by the home of Jackson's granddaughter and see these
same relics.

Pictured in the image are a clock, field classes,
epaulettes, sword, and two pistols. One pistol is identified as a British
Tranter. The other bears striking resemblance to a LeMat, with its shotgun
barrel under the main barrel, ornate trigger guard, lanyard, and "subtle
slope atop the gun's frame..." Williams poses the question: "If
Jackson owned a LeMat, where is it?"

Jackson's cased Beaumont-Adams revolver, his Lefaucheaux
pin-fired revolver, field glasses, and Model 1850 US Field and Staff sword are
all held at the former Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond. But where is
Jackson's LeMat?

Is this Jackson's LeMat? (VMI/America's Civil War)

As a side note, Williams describes the sitting room as being in Jackson's former home
in Charlotte; however, Jackson never actually lived in the home where Mary Anna
resided after his death.

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About Me

Michael is the 2010 North Carolina Historian of the Year. He specializes in writing about North Carolina and Civil War history. You can learn more about him by checking out his web page at: michaelchardy.com